zlacker

>>pangor+(OP)
You answered your question with "apart from the nozzle"

It is the nozzle. Everything else is very simple to make because it is already done for 3d printers that are more complex than 2d printers(if you do not consider the nozzle).

5 years or so ago I made a 2d plotter with friends at my 3d printers community with the reverse engineering knowledge that we had about a specific cartridge with nozzles on it.

Printing with ink was easy, very easy. But we were interested in using it for 3d print wax, not so easy.

You need to manufacture nozzles, and that requires lots of money. That requires manufacturing plants. Very cheap in volume, but requires volume.

Open source has not volume in the millions, like big companies have, and those companies are not going to sell you the nozzles so you commoditize their professional field like linux did.

>>pritov+J9
Why can't you 3D print a nozzle? Or are there electronics in there too?

>>abdull+Mo
... because the channels through which the ink is propelled are only microns wide, and the ink volumes which are distributed per drop are in the picoliter range which requires a complex piezo-electric control system.

>>Novemb+4q
If this topic turns out to be the start of a FOSS, I'll join as a (senior) design engineer.

Find one that doesn't have a patent and reverse engineer it.

I imagine the first/original control system was extremely difficult to develop. But since the technology already exists you can reverse engineer it.

After that, you pay a supplier to make parts. In my experience, these suppliers will end up redesigning to match better with their process, but still meets critical specifications.

I'd post my contact info, but I believe I'm targeted by an HN mod.